Rana Sanaullah


Rana Sanaullah Khan is a Pakistani politician. He is a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since August 2018. He is serving as the President of Pakistan Muslim League since 04 May 2019.
Previously, he has served as the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister of Punjab from 2008 till 2018, Local Governments and Community Development Minister of Punjab from 2008 till 2014, Revenue Minister of Punjab from 2008 till 2013, Public Prosecution Minister of Punjab from 2008 till 2013, Deputy Leader of the Opposition Punjab from 1990 till 1993 and again from 2002 till 2007.

Early life and family

He was born on 1 January 1950 in Faisalabad and is a cousin of former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Political career

He was elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party in 1990 Pakistani general election.
He was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League in 1997 Pakistani general election.
He was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab from PP-70 as a candidate of in 2002 Pakistani general election. In 2003, he was abducted by alleged intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence and was badly tortured for speaking against military regime. When freed, he was subsequently shifted to DHQ hospital.
He was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab from PP-70 as a candidate of in 2008 Pakistani general election.
He was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab from PP-70 as a candidate of in 2013 Pakistani general election.
He was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan from NA-106 as a candidate of in 2018 Pakistani general election.

Controversies

In August 2011, he accused American Warren Weinstein of being an American spy although Weinstein had lived in Pakistan for seven years and there was no evidence that he was a spy. Weinstein went missing a week later and was accidentally killed in a January 2015 US drone strike on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, as announced by U.S. President Barack Obama at a White House press conference on April 23, 2015.

Model Town incident

On 17 June 2014, Punjab Police raided the Minhaj-ul-Quran International's lahore secretariat on the pretext of removing security barriers from its surroundings. Tahir-ul-Qadri's followers, who were preparing for his arrival from Canada to launch an anti-government movement on 23 June 2014, protested and deadly skirmishes started. A dozen of Tahir-ul-Qadri's devotees were killed including three women and around hundred got seriously wounded from bullet shots. Rana Sanaullah, who is considered only second to the Chief Minister, remained adamant that the police action was justified which added to the public fury.
In the wake of public reaction and opposition's criticism, Shahbaz Sharif sacked Rana Sanaullah Khan as law minister, and Punjab's top bureaucrat. However, Qadri and other opposition leaders including Imran Khan held Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of Punjab, responsible for the civilian deaths at the hands of police and demanded his resignation. FIR of Model Town tragedy was registered against key figures of the present government including the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister and Rana Sanaullah Khan.
A joint-investigation-team was later formed to investigate the incident. Once that JIT cleared him from charges, he was sworn in as Punjab Law Minister again in May 2015.

Arrest by Anti-Narcotics Force

On 2 July 2019, the Anti-Narcotics Force arrested Sanaullah on motorway near Sukheyki in an alleged drugs-related case.